South Australian Artist, Writer, Video Producer and Animator, David Arandle working under the pseudonym 'The Extraordinary Tourist' or 'TET' for short Blogs about his personal animation projects as well as Tips, Software Reviews, Featured Animators Animation Business and a whole lot more.

Initially this whole episode was going to be Barack and Joe chasing Rashy. I wanted there to be lots of action and comedy in the style of many cartoon chases you see, such as the classic 'hallway of doors' where the pursuer and those in pursuit run between numerous doors across a hallway, almost impossibly emerging from different doors each time.

Then, as I thought about the episode more, as a viewer I'd be disappointed with a long, drawn out chase scene where the story doesn't really progress. Plus I already kind of did the same thing in the first Men In Black series with Rashy travelling to the same crime scene as Agent's AKON and Obama but unnoticed in the background by them - for the whole episode.

When I scratched that idea I'd already made the beginning (the two agents leaving the bar in pursuit of Rashy) and ending (or what I thought would be the ending) scene where Barack and Joe are about to be overpowered by Rashy's robots. I was then going to fill out the middle with the big chase.

It wasn't long before a new idea emerged that would make sense of why Rashy was in the bar with the two people looking for him, knowing that Obama would probably see through his disguise. Clearly if Rashy could get Obama out of the way he'd be free of the one person who can destroy his plan to be leader of the free world.

As this idea grew it was obvious Rashy wouldn't want the agents to be chasing him for too long - in case they did actually capture him before he lead them onto the spaceship.

My problem then became, how do I fill the rest of this installment given that the chase is now so short and I've still got a good minute and a half to go?

I solved part of the problem by having Barack communicate with MIB headquarters what they were doing. This also allowed me to not only make the chase scene a little longer but also enabled me to skip having a scene of Barack and Joe actually boarding the spacecraft. As well it gave me an opportunity to have the MIB Director warn about the spaceship being a trap (just to get the viewer thinking about the possibility of a trap ahead of all the robots appearing).

The rest of the problem I solved by realizing that, with Barack out of the way, Rashy would be completely free to impersonate the President and fast track his way into the job he set out to get, initially by impersonating Newt Gingrich and trying to win the election. (Side note: Hence the Witch in part 3 trying to get Sarah Palin to run. The Witch, as one of Rashy's class mates at Bison's Evil Genius Training Camp, is also plotting to become leader of the free world).

That did leave another problem. If Rashy didn't get on the spaceship, who is he working with that has a spaceship? I didn't have to think too hard to come up with George Bush and Dick Cheney - who had already been established as aliens in the first MIB. Though in the original series Rashy was trying to kill them but I promise this will be addressed in Part 5.

People with an eye for detail may notice in some scenes in part 4 both Barack and Joe have custom heads. This is because I'm not able to attach their sunglasses to the characters - the glasses are designed for the much bigger character of Boss in GoAnimate's Full Energy theme. When the characters run their heads bob up and down. It was just easier to make a custom head with glasses attached than to try and match the movement of the glasses to the movement of their head when they run (you can see the problem in the closing scene with the walking Joe Biden Bot. As he walks his head moves up and down whilst the glasses remain completely level).

That covers everything I want to mention behind the scenes for this episode. Part 5 will hopefully be out before Christmas.

TET's Main Blog

I also write articles about a whole range of things that interest me. If you want to see what's caught my attention beyond animation and video head over to my main home and blog at www.extraordinarytourist.com

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All Images, art work and written work appearing on this site are original works by Art Time Productions, unless stated otherwise, and should not be reproduced or used for commercial purposes without the express permission of Art Time Productions. Art Time Productions is a registered business name in the state of South Australia. ABN: 48 951 760 706

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